By Kory CarpenterRecord Sports EditorThe Wright City girls basketball team will look to improve on last season’s 1-20 record with only one senior on the 2015-2016 roster.Head Coach Fred Ross likes what he has seen in practice, but knows his team has a long way to go to reach its potential.“There is a lot of inexperience,” Ross said. “We have a lot of things to worry about and introduce with so many underclassmen.”Half of the roster consists of underclassmen after the Wildcats lost Orlanda Hill and Kyle Winfrey to graduation, and three of the top four scorers from last season are gone.Junior guard Amy Janowski was third on the team with 4.1 points per game last season, and senior guard Savannah Bridges returns after scoring three points per contest.The production drops off after that, and Ross hopes newcomers will fill the void.“Over half of our girls are new to the high school program,” Ross said. “But it’s exciting to get so many girls out playing. We’re getting better each day in practice, and we’re better than I expected.”Ross hopes to implement the right kind of attitude in his young players as they adjust to a new game.“The pace and work ethic from middle school to high school is the biggest thing to get them adjusted to,” he said. “We’re trying to install everything in practice and hopefully that translates to the games.”The Wildcats dropped their season opener to Louisiana last week, 48-31.Ross said the offense was efficient at times in the first half, but stressed the need to keep working on defense.Wright City is expected to run a guard-oriented offense because of its lack of size.Ross believes he has just two true post players, so veterans like Bridges will have to help out down low when needed.“With so many younger players coming in, the older players need to step up,” Bridges said.As the only senior on the team and one of the few players with varsity experience, Bridges has relished her leadership role.“It’s a lot more responsibility,” she said. “You’ve got to be a good role model with a younger team, and I love it. They’re always willing to listen to me, and that helps a lot.”Bridges led Wright City into the Lutheran St. Charles Tournament this week, and the final game is set for Friday afternoon.The Wildcats will host North County Christian Tuesday night, and will host Elsberry in their Eastern Missouri Conference opener Dec. 14.“I think the conference will be very good,” Ross said. “We saw three of the teams in the jamboree, and I’ll say Clopton is still the team to beat.”For now, the Wildcats will bring their young players along and focus on getting better each day.“I told them I’m not really worried about early-season wins and losses,” Ross said. “I’m worried about getting better, trying things and learning the offense. But if we run our offense, set good screens and take good shots, we’ll be OK and get better as the year goes on.”

Members of the Wright City girls basketball team are, front row from left, Hannah Rogers, Riley Heiliger, Melina Campbell, Champayne Hunter, Nikki Stiles and Cynthia Rodriguez. Back row from left, Savannah Bridges, Jada Hunter, Erin Tomschin, Abbey Jaspering, McKenzie McMullin and Amy Janowski. Not pictured: Alyssa Hart and Aryan Reinhold .        Kory Carpenter photo.